Grow and Go

Theme For The Week: Our main text for this series of devotionals is from Luke 8.1-3. You can listen to the sermon that accompanies it here.

Intro Prayer: “Jesus, please help me in this time to be fully present to You and myself that I may commune with You for the sake of your glory and the world around me.”

Silence: In this time, try and become silent before the Lord both internally and externally for 5 minutes. If your mind wanders, gently bring it back to stillness.

Devotional: This week you are going to learn a simple way for understanding and sharing the Gospel- the Good News of the Kingdom of God. First we learned that the Gospel message starts with Creation: God’s Perfect Design. Second, we see The Fall: Brokenness. But God does not leave us! He comes in Jesus to redeem us from our brokenness and sin and restore us to God’s perfect design. Our redemption empowers us to grow and go.

As we practice the way of Jesus we grow into the people God designed us to be. And we are called to go back into a broken world to help others come to know Jesus and experience His redeeming power.

Today’s Scripture reflects on both the growing and the going.

Scripture: Read today’s text slowly. Feed your spirit on the words. Your goal in this time is to commune with Jesus through His Word. Take note as you sense His Presence.

1 Peter 2.1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 5.17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Worship: Respond to Jesus with worship today! Our worship song for today is So Will I by Hillsong. We have worshipped to it all week as we savor Jesus and the gift of the Gospel.

Listen: Take time to listen to the Holy Spirit. Write down anything you sense the Lord speaking.

Obedience: What from today is the Lord calling you to put in practice? Could be to pray for someone, to call someone, to serve someone etc.